Hairspray Marches On

The Unsinkable Tracy Turnblad usually makes stars of her vessels but it’s worth noting that Hairspray does not always feel beholden to her --each new version actually swallows her up a little more. Ricki Lake found fame and fortune in the John Waters original (she and John Waters nearly bookend this new film with cameos) which played like an improbable star vehicle. Divine, legendary drag performer and Waters muse, was justly beloved as Edna Turnblad Tracy’s mother, but it was still a supporting role. Broadway's squeaky and fabulous Tracy Marissa Jarret Winokur won a TONY award but the show played as a duet on stage. Gay icon Harvey Fierstein (Edna Turnblad) regularly brought down the house with his miraculous performance and inimitable croaky voice. Nikki Blonsky is a fun and self possessed Tracy in the new film. She ably projects the heroine's drive and spirit and her voice is engaging but Hairspray 3.0 feels for the first time like a true ensemble. 

The most surprising discovery in 2007 is that Edna Turnblad (John Travolta) also steps back into the chorus line with her daughter. It’s hard to imagine that a large and famous man playing a large woman as a woman would not pull all the focus but he doesn’t. This turns out to be a blessing to the film since Travolta’s star turn is weirdly judged. It would be unfair to call it a failed performance but neither is it wholly successful. Travolta is the only one doing an accent (making it stick out more) and many of his line readings are muffled. That’s unfortunate since Travolta can be a solid comedic performer and the lines are funny. His best scenes are the musical numbers. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since he’s been a sensation on the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Pulp Fiction. You can add this film to that list: two of the best numbers “Welcome to the 60s” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat” benefit greatly from his physical electricity, even when he’s covered in latex and yards of fabric.

Opinions will vary as to “best in show” status but my vote goes to James Marsden who is entirely committed to that frozen grin (and in great voice) as TV host Corny Collins and newcomer Elijah Kelly who brings the energy way up whenever his character Seaweed makes a move. The great Michelle Pfeiffer is also a treat, seizing everything detestable in Velma Von Tussle for your “boo! hiss!” pleasure. It’s not a subtle performance but the laughs she coaxes out of it still have texture… witness how much comic venom she can spit out with a curt two syllable dismissal “Tracy”. Pfeiffer is a splendid villainess but saddled with what’s always been Hairspray: The Musical’s weakest number “Miss Baltimore Crabs”. It works better onscreen than it did on stage but one wonders why they didn’t replace it. Surely they realized its weakness during the long Broadway run?

Individual cast highlights aside, this Hairspray works best as an ensemble suggesting that the highest praise goes back to the original creators (John Waters first and foremost, followed by the Broadway writers) and … wait for it… Adam Shankman, the choreographer/director of this new exuberance. As a fan of the original and the stage show I was nervous going in but Shankman’s handling of the Broadway show’s delicious, hooky opening number “Good Morning Baltimore” was spot on. He neither lazily carbon-copies the stage show nor ignores it. There’s a visual joke toward the end of the song (I won’t spoil it for you) that completely put my fears to rest. It’s silly, inappropriate and captures John Waters sense of humor while also playing up funny movie musical conventions. Shankman, I realized with a sigh with a relief, knows what he’s doing. He continues to prove his worth throughout the movie. The musical numbers are often very well conceived (there's a successful cinematic revision to the romantic number “Without Love” ) and he actually shoots the dance numbers so that you can see most of the choreography. It comes as a editing shock to the modern system. You mean they didn't put the coverage in a cuisinart? How retro!

This is not to say that Hairspray is a perfect film. Despite its wonderful light touch in most sequences (“I Can Hear the Bells” is very simply sweet), it overplays its message with a boring civil rights march (presumably to showcase an Oscar bid for Best Original Song). That’s particularly disappointing since Hairspray has always had its outsider heart and politics in just the right place (the funny bone) without ever feeling dully preachy. The sudden messaging is also hypocritical since the movie cuts the truly queer romanticism of “You’re Timeless to Me” which is sung between Edna and her husband Wilbur. This number closes with a big gay kiss on Broadway and it stopped the show twice the night I saw it: people were going absolutely and justifiably bonkers for the great Harvey Fierstein and his stage Wilbur Dick Latessa. It’s a strange number in the film losing its longtime libidinous drive and nerve and going to fade out, despite the other horny lip locks remaining intact in the transfer process. Most of Hairspray’s creative team are out and gay but I wonder if they’ve thought about the possible derived message: it’s great to integrate the races but queers should still stay out of sight.

Hairspray’s colorful songs, big dresses and bigger hair are more than a little like cotton candy. The sugar rush is unmistakable as is the feeling that it’ll be disintegrating moments after you’ve tasted it. But, if you have the craving, it offers short term heaven. Moviegoers who do will be hard pressed to resist it. From cult comedy to Broadway show to blockbuster movie, Hairspray sure can shake and shimmy.

You can’t stop its beat.
You can’t stop its beat.
You can’t stop its beat.